Open Guitar Tuning - Audio Tuners and Tips

Open guitar tuning is a form of alternate tuning
(from the standard E A D G B e) based around the notes of
a major or minor chord.

When you're in open
E
tuning, for example, if you strum across all 6
strings open (without fretting), you will hear the chord E major.

Open tuning allows you to barre
your finger across all 6
strings at any fret to get a full-voiced major or minor chord. Take a
look at what you can do with this...

The
advantage of open tuning is you can use the fact it's already tuned to
a chord as a base and your other fingers are
freed up to build on that chord with interesting
extensions.

It's also used by bottle
neck slide players, as you can apply the bottle neck across 5
or 6 strings to create that sliding chord effect.

Open guitar tuning can get you
some rich sounds and different colors than we're used to with standard
tuning. It's by no means a
replacement for standard tuning, but something to have fun
experimenting
with.

Open
A guitar tuner - E A E A C# E

Playing
all 6 strings unfretted in open A tuning sounds an A major
chord.

e

C#

A

E

A

E

Tuning to Open A without a tuner

Sometimes you don't have a tuner (or this website!) handy. No problem.
Assuming you're in standard tuning (or near enough), learn the
following steps for future reference...

Keep the 6th and 5th strings as they are (E and A)

Press the 5th
string at the 7th
fret and tune the 4th
string to the same pitch (E)

Press the 4th
string at the 5th
fret and tune the 3rd
string to the same pitch (A)

Press the 3rd
string at the 4th
fret and tune the 2nd
string to the same pitch (C#)

Press the 2nd
string at the 3rd
fret and tune the 1st
string to the same pitch (e)

Open A minor
tuning

There's just one note that
determines whether a
chord/tuning is major or minor (the major or minor 3rd interval). In
this case, we flatten the C# string one half step
to a minor 3rd
- C

Click the string below to
tune...

C

Open
C guitar tuner -
C G C G C E

Click each string to hear and tune up.

Playing
all 6 strings unfretted in open C tuning sounds a C major
chord.

e

C

G

C

G

C

Tuning to Open C without a tuner

No tuner/access to the internet? No problem! The below steps will teach
you how to get into open C from standard tuning...

Press the 6th
string at the 3rd
fret and tune the 5th
string to the same pitch (G)

Press the 5th
string at the 5th
fret and tune the 4th
string to the same pitch (C)

Press the 4th
string at the 7th
fret and tune the 3rd
string to the same pitch (G)

Press the 3rd
string at the 5th
fret and tune the 2nd
string to the same pitch (C)

Press the 2nd
string at the 4th
fret and tune the 1st
string to the same pitch (e)

Press the 5th
string at the 5th
fret and tune the 6th
string down to the same note (C)

Open C minor
tuning

Here, we simply flatten
the e
string to a minor 3rd - Eb (E flat)

Click the string below to
tune...

Eb

Open
D guitar tuner -
D A D F# A D

Click each string to hear and tune up.

Playing
all 6 strings unfretted in open D tuning sounds a D major
chord.

d

A

F#

D

A

D

Tuning to Open D without a tuner

Follow the below steps to tune to open D from standard tuning...

Tune down the 6th
string until it matches the 4th string (D)

Keep the 5th and 4th strings as they are (A and D)

Press the 4th
string at the 4th
fret and tune the 3rd
string to the same pitch (F#)

Press the 3rd
string at the 3rd
fret and tune the 2nd
string to the same pitch (A)

Press the 2nd
string at the 5th
fret and tune the 1st
string to the same pitch (d)

Open D minor
tuning

There is just one note that
determines whether a chord/tuning is major
or minor (the 3rd tone of the major scale). In this case, we flatten
the F# string to a minor 3rd - F

Click the string below to
tune...

F

Open
E guitar tuner -
E B E G# B E

Click each string to hear and tune up.

Playing
all 6 strings unfretted in open E tuning sounds an E major
chord.

e

B

G#

E

B

E

Tuning to Open E without a tuner

Follow these steps to tune to open E from standard tuning...

Press the 6th
string at the 7th
fret and tune the 5th
string to the same pitch (B)

Press the 5th
string at the 5th
fret and tune the 4th
string to the same pitch (E)

Press the 4th
string at the 4th
fret and tune the 3rd
string to the same pitch (G#)

Press the 3rd
string at the 3rd
fret and tune the 2nd
string to the same pitch (B)

Press the 2nd
string at the 5th
fret and tune the 1st
string to the same pitch (e)

Open E minor
tuning

There is just one note that
determines whether a chord/tuning is major
or minor (the 3rd tone of the major scale). In this case, we flatten
the G# (G sharp) string to a minor 3rd - G

Click the string below to
tune...

G

Open
G guitar tuner -
D G D G B D

Click each string to hear and tune up.

Playing
all 6 strings unfretted in open G tuning sounds a G major
chord.

d

B

G

D

G

D

Tuning to Open G without a tuner

Follow these steps to tune to open G from standard tuning...

Press the 6th
string at the 3rd
fret and tune the 5th
string to the same pitch (G)

Tune down the 6th
string until it matches the 4th string (D)

Leave the 4th string as it is (D)

Press the 4th
string at the 5th
fret and tune the 3rd
string to the same pitch (G)

Press the 3rd
string at the 4th
fret and tune the 2nd
string to the same pitch (B)

Press the 2nd
string at the 3rd
fret and tune the 1st
string to the same pitch (d)

Open G minor
tuning

There is just one note that
determines whether a chord/tuning is major
or minor (the 3rd tone of the major scale). In this case, we flatten
the B string to a minor 3rd - Bb

Click the string below to
tune...

Bb

Open
tuning chords

Obviously, when you tune out of standard tuning (E A D G B e), any
chord forms you knew in standard tuning will sound completely different.

Open
tuning allows you simply to barre your index
finger across all 6 strings to create a "base" major or minor chord
(depending on whether you're in open major or open minor tuning).

You can then use your other fingers to add notes to that base chord.

The below open tuning chord table will show you what this base/barre
chord will be at diffrent frets for different open tunings. Remember,
the 12th fret is the octave of the open strings, so we get the same
notes at the 12th fret as the open strings.